THE SEVENTH CROSS by Anna Seghers (Translated from German)

First published in the US in 1942, this novel was an abridged version of the original written by German born Jewish woman Anna Seghers. Her story of escape from Germany to France in 1933, then again from France in 1940 to Mexico and finally to America is worthy of a book in itself. As is the miracle of survival of the manuscript. Of four copies she made only one made it to publication in the US, and even then it was posted from France, the others destroyed or disappeared.  In 1944 a film starring Spencer Tracy was one of the few movies of the era to deal with a European concentration camp.

This latest publishing of the novel is the first unabridged version in English. As we continue to be deluged with both fiction and non-fiction, movies, TV series about the war, the Holocaust, the horrific and terrible cost, pain and loss of everything, this novel remains as relevant and important as it was 70 plus years ago.

George Heisler is prisoner in a concentration camp near a town in Germany. Like the author, George is a communist, hence his imprisonment. Along with six others, one day he escapes. This is the story of that escape, how the others are caught, how George evades capture, how he learns who to trust, who not to trust, how living on your wits is almost fatal work. The seven crosses are a creation of the ruthless and sadistic camp commander. As each prisoner is caught he is dragged back to the camp and tied to the cross erected for the purpose. Day after day the seventh cross remains empty.

Over the course of a very desperate week George returns to the town he came from - Mainz, where he has both good and bad luck in getting help for his continuing evasion from the Gestapo and SS. For the risk lies that he will be betrayed by any one of the people he meets, or that his contacts are in turn betrayed, or make an error that puts them and all their families at risk. It is a perilous world. But as we know, us humans can be capable of great risk taking for another person, and great acts of kindness. That George makes any progress at all is a miracle, but the biggest miracle is what he discovers about himself.

This novel is exquisitely written in its detail of daily life for the average German over this time. There is much putting the head in the sand amongst the citizens, the constant worry that ears are listening and possibly misinterpreting conversations, asides, who one is seen with. The SA, SS, Gestapo and Hitler Youth are everywhere, there is endless fear that one may put a foot wrong. That George successfully evades all this is marvellous, but right up till the very last page it could all go wrong.

This is neither a hard read nor an easy read. It is very detailed in the minutiae of daily life, there are a lot of characters, most peripheral to the actual plot which makes it hard to remind oneself as to why they are there! A list at the beginning is not really long enough or detailed enough about all the characters. It is a small issue, as the story of George is really what carries the whole thing along. It would be great to see a remake of the 1944 movie to coincide with the republication of the novel.